Category: Worship

Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth. I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you; knowing that the putting off of my tent comes swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. Yes, I will make every effort that you may always be able to remember these things even after my departure. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This voice we heard come out of heaven when we were with Him in the holy mountain.
–2 Peter 1:12-18

What did they see? Here is Matthew’s account of what they saw:

After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves. He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as the light. Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with Him. Peter answered, and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, let’s make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were very afraid. Jesus came and touched them and said, “Get up, and don’t be afraid.”
–Matthew 17:1-7

This fisherman, Peter, saw the majesty of God’s Anointed Son…Jesus. Years later, as Peter neared death, he could be found continuing to describe to people what he saw and heard back on that mountain. What he had witnessed had changed him and given birth within him a conviction that would remain until, and through the midst of, his murderous death by the Romans. After seeing the Son of God, Peter had been ruined to his old self and to the careless world around him. Peter saw the revelation of the glory, honor and majesty of the Son of God, and he needed to tell everyone who would listen before death would silence him. From that day on, Peter “remembered the Lord.” It was not just what he did, but it was what he was from the changed depths of his being. The burning conviction within him needed to make sure that, after his death, we could read and understand his eye witness account and, with the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, come to believe into and experience Jesus for ourselves. The knowledge of the Son of God can be ours — first hand and experiential — if we will humble ourselves to receive the eye witness testimony and hear what the Son of God is saying… if anyone thirsts!

“But of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, Who was made to us (1) wisdom from God, and (2) righteousness and (3) sanctification, and (4) redemption: that, according as it is written, ‘He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.'”
— 1 Corinthians 1:30,31

Of Him..

…out of, proceeding forth from, emanating and emerging from the Person and intention of God… if indeed we are, this is how we have come to be within Anointed Jesus!

(1) If we have any wisdom attributed to us at all, it is Jesus Himself.

(2) If we have any righteousness attributed to us at all, it is Jesus Himself.

(3) If we are set apart from this fallen world at all, it is so in the Person of Jesus Himself, Who is not of this world.

(4) If we have been turned into something good and useful from the dark and broken state that is our nature, it is only and always because we find ourselves clothed with the Person of Jesus Himself.

Only in great humility do we truly humble ourselves.

Lord Jesus, You Yourself are the Holy One, Most High, in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. As we gaze upon You, we gaze upon Abba, Father.

Blessed be You, O God, my God! Thank You for You! You are my All in All.

“Before the Lord God made man upon the earth He first prepared for him by creating a world of useful and pleasant things for his sustenance and delight. In the Genesis account of the creation these are called simply “things.” They were made for man’s uses, but they were meant always to be external to the man and subservient to him. In the deep heart of the man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. Within him was God; without, a thousand gifts which God had showered upon him.”

“But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul.”

“Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and “things” were allowed to enter. Within the human heart “things” have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.”

“This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble. There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets “things” with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns “my” and “mine” look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.”

“Our Lord referred to this tyranny of things when He said to His disciples, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.'”

…

“If we would indeed know God in growing intimacy we must go this way of renunciation. And if we are set upon the pursuit of God He will sooner or later bring us to this test. Abraham’s testing was, at the time, not known to him as such, yet if he had taken some course other than the one he did, the whole history of the Old Testament would have been different. God would have found His man, no doubt, but the loss to Abraham would have been tragic beyond the telling. So we will be brought one by one to the testing place, and we may never know when we are there. At that testing place there will be no dozen possible choices for us; just one and an alternative, but our whole future will be conditioned by the choice we make.”

“Father, I want to know You, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from You the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that You may enter and dwell there without a rival. Then will You make the place of You feet glorious. Then will my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Yourself will be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

“In these verses the apostle puts them in mind of what they were before their conversion to the faith of Christ, and what a blessed change their conversion had made upon them; and thence endeavours to convince them of their great weakness in hearkening to those who would bring them under the bondage of the law of Moses.”

“I. He reminds them of their past state and behaviour, and what they were before the gospel was preached to them. Then they knew not God; they were grossly ignorant of the true God, and the way wherein he is to be worshipped: and at that time they were under the worst of slaveries, for they did service to those which by nature were no gods, they were employed in a great number of superstitious and idolatrous services to those who, though they were accounted gods, were yet really no gods, but mere creatures, and perhaps of their own making, and therefore were utterly unable to hear and help them. Note, 1. Those who are ignorant of the true God cannot but be inclined to false gods. Those who forsook the God who made the world, rather than be without gods, worshipped such as they themselves made. 2. Religious worship is due to none but to him who is by nature God; for, when the apostle blames the doing service to such as by nature were no gods, he plainly shows that he only who is by nature God is the proper object of our religious worship.”

“II. He calls upon them to consider the happy change that was made in them by the preaching of the gospel among them. Now they had known God (they were brought to the knowledge of the true God and of his Son Jesus Christ, whereby they were recovered out of the ignorance and bondage under which they before lay) or rather were known of God; this happy change in their state, whereby they were turned from idols to the living God, and through Christ had received the adoption of sons, was not owing to themselves, but to him; it was the effect of his free and rich grace towards them, and as such they ought to account it; and therefore hereby they were laid under the greater obligation to adhere to the liberty wherewith he had made them free. Note, All our acquaintance with God begins with him; we know him, because we are known of him.”

“III. Hence he infers the unreasonableness and madness of their suffering themselves to be brought again into a state of bondage. He speaks of it with surprise and deep concern of mind that such as they should do so: How turn you again, etc., says he, Gal 4:9. “How is it that you, who have been taught to worship God in the gospel way, should not be persuaded to comply with the ceremonial way of worship? that you, who have been acquainted with a dispensation of light, liberty, and love, as that of the gospel is, should now submit to a dispensation of darkness, and bondage, and terror, as that of the law is?” This they had the less reason for, since they had never been under the law of Moses, as the Jews had been; and therefore on this account they were more inexcusable than the Jews themselves, who might be supposed to have some fondness for that which had been of such long standing among them. Besides, what they suffered themselves to be brought into bondage to were but weak and beggarly elements, such things as had no power in them to cleanse the soul, nor to afford any solid satisfaction to the mind, and which were only designed for that state of pupillage under which the church had been, but which had now come to a period; and therefore their weakness and folly were the more aggravated, in submitting to them, and in symbolizing with the Jews in observing their various festivals, here signified by days, and months, and times, and years. Here note, 1. It is possible for those who have made great professions of religion to be afterwards drawn into very great defections from the purity and simplicity of it, for this was the case of these Christians. And, 2. The more mercy God has shown to any, in bringing them into an acquaintance with the gospel, and the liberties and privileges of it, the greater are their sin and folly in suffering themselves to be deprived of them; for this the apostle lays a special stress upon, that after they had known God, or rather were known of him, they desired to be in bondage under the weak and beggarly elements of the law.”

“IV. Hereupon he expresses his fears concerning them, lest he had bestowed on them labour in vain. He had been at a great deal of pains about them, in preaching the gospel to them, and endeavouring to confirm them in the faith and liberty of it; but now they were giving up these, and thereby rendering his labour among them fruitless and ineffectual, and with the thoughts of this he could not but be deeply affected. Note, 1. A great deal of the labour of faithful ministers is labour in vain; and, when it is so, it cannot but be a great grief to those who desire the salvation of souls. Note, 2. The labour of ministers is in vain upon those who begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh, who, though they seem to set out well, yet afterwards turn aside from the way of the gospel. Note, 3. Those will have a great deal to answer for upon whom the faithful ministers of Jesus Christ bestow labour in vain.”

Galatians 4.4-11

4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, having come into being out of a woman, having come under Law,
5 that He might redeem the ones under Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba! Father!
7 So that you no more are a slave, but a son, and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.
8 But then, indeed, not knowing God, you served as slaves to the ones by nature not being gods.
9 But now, knowing God, but rather being known by God, how do you turn again to the weak and poor elements to which you desire again to slave anew?
10 You observe days and months and seasons and years.
11 I fear for you, lest somehow I have labored among you in vain.

Some food for thought when held within the proper context of our own priesthood before God and the gravity of our personal responsibility of service to God (I.e. not making an idol out of a calling men “teacher” and “father” and “pastor,” but rather turning our hearts fully toward God in awe and love):